An integrated circuit may include a number of subsystems. For example, a system on a chip (SOC) integrated circuit may include a processor subsystem, which includes one or more processors, peripherals, memory, and hardware interfaces, and a field programmable gate array (FGPA) subsystem, which includes a programmable FPGA core and hard-IP implemented controllers and transceivers.
An integrated circuit is generally vulnerable to a software or hardware based attack in which code that is to be executed by a processor of the integrated circuit is manipulated or corrupted so that the processor performs actions other than those intended by the supplier of the integrated circuit supplier. Such vulnerabilities are magnified in SOC integrated circuit, which includes a number hardware interfaces, each a potential point of weakness for a hardware attack, and a number of memory subsystems, each a possible storage point for malicious code.